Graduate student Philip Asare (ECE ’15) helps students taking the
Real-Time Systems course perfect their design for a robotic vehicle.
“I tried to encourage students to think through engineering
problems before they begin implementation.”
Policy and Outcomes, in Washington, D.C. The program
is aimed at doctoral students interested in how decisions
about public science funding, regulation and policy are
made at the federal level. “Understanding this particular
process is important to me because as a graduate student
working on a faculty grant and as a potential faculty
member, I’m part of the system,” he says. “I’m also interested
because it is my ultimate intention to return to Ghana and
help develop a sustainable education and science policy so
we can tackle our own social problems.”
In the final analysis, Asare sees engineering as a humanist
enterprise, a perspective that inspires his dedication to
teaching and outreach. To hone his skills as a teacher, he
took part in the Engineering School’s Graduate Teaching
Internship Program, which gives students considering an
academic career the opportunity to develop and co-teach
a course with experienced faculty mentors. Here again,
he emphasized process. “I tried to encourage students to
think through engineering problems before they begin
implementation,” he says.
Asare also participates in summer programs for high
school students organized by the School’s Center for
Diversity and has even visited a second-grade classroom to
explain engineering. “I enjoyed the challenge of trying to
think about engineering on their terms,” he says. “And they
sent me a wonderful thank-you card.”
U.Va. ENGINEERING UNBOUND
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